Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunters, 1939-1942

by Clay Blair Jr.

Book Overview

"His monumental work...is the most thorough study of the U-boat campaign available."--"Library Journal" Hitler's U-boat War is an epic sea story about the most arduous and prolonged naval battle in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394588398
• ISBN13: 9780394588391
• Release Date: October 1996
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 2 Pages
• Weight: 2.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.4" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

A Towering Work

"Hitler's U-Boat War" (this review actually refers to both volumes of the trade paper edition) stands as an impressive achievement of a naval historian who pored over mountains of Kriegsmarine records and Allied intelligence reports and distilled them into 1600 pages of the most comprehensive treatment of the U-Boat war ever offered. Every tour and patrol of the main line U-Boats (Types VII, IX and XIV, and variants) is listed in the appendices. The boat logs offer a staggering amount of detail and, in Blair's hands, paint a vivid picture of life inside an "iron coffin."The reader is provided with meticulous treatments of the torpedo design defects, the ineffective Naxos radar detector, Huff Duff, and, of course, the constant struggle to keep up with naval Enigma, all of which underline the distinct technological advantage the Allies possessed. Yet, due to America's delayed entry into the war, mistrust among the Allied intelligence agencies, and the difficulties with instituting an effective transatlantic convoy system, it was not until late 1942 that the tide began to turn against the Kriegsmarine. However, argues Blair, the U-Boats were never in any danger of winning the Atlantic war. Instead, their chief benefit to Germany was psychological. Since "death from below" could strike without warning, the Allies tied up vast amounts of materiel and manpower in convoying and anti-submarine warfare, reducing the efficiency of the transatlantic lifeline sustaining Britain.The eventual outcome, though, was never truly in doubt. The Kriegsmarine suffered from a lack of inter-service coordination, was low on experienced commanders, and, of course, was saddled with a hideously-high casualty rate. By mid-1944, the Allies had tracked down and sunk every dedicated U-Tanker in the German arsenal thanks to the Kriegsmarine's own decoded position reports, thereby crippling the strategic value of the remaining U-Boats. By the time the Germans got around to production of the electro-boats, the war was virtually over.I can vouch for the fact that you will not agree with all of Blair's positions, and the one on whether Doenitz was a war criminal is possibly the most contentious in the book. But it will make you think, and that's the mark of a good historical text.I make one caveat. My five-star rating is for the serious naval history buff only. This is a very technical book, and the style becomes quite repetitive after a while. It is valuable for what it does--a comprehensive, meticulous survey of the U-Boat war. What it does, it does well. It is not a casual read, though. For the general reader, I'd drop this down to three stars, primarily because of the style. If you're really fascinated by this branch of military history, though (like I am), you will take a lot away with you when you finish.

A Must Read for WW2 history buffs

Blair's attention to detail and his ability to relate to the trails of Uboat crews puts him in a class with Ambrose and Foote. This is the best WW2 Navy piece I have read (and I have covered alot of them).

Definative

This book and its companion volume are the definitive history of the German U-Boat campaign. This book examines the initial more successful period of the campaign from 1939 to 1942, the second volume examines the defeat of the U-Boats. What Blair does is to examine every submarine log and the reports sent to U-Boat headquarters. These he then compares to allied logs and shipping manifesto to work out what occurred with every encounter in the theatre. There have been previous histories of the campaign which have been mainly a narrative. In general terms the story is that Germany started the war with a very small number of submarines around 30. The mechanics of submarine warfare are that this translated into a small number of boats in action at any one time. Some boats were used for training, and the period of time taken to move into the battle zone meant that most boats were not on station for long. After the fall of France the number of boats started to increase and the availability of French ports lessened the travel times. During the later part of 1940 and during 1941 the Germans were able to achieve some success. This was aided by a shortage of escort vessels after France left the war. When America entered the war, U-boats moved to the American coast and targeted oil tankers. A large number were sunk in what was known as operation Drum Beat. Blair analyses these operations and comes up with some remarkable findings. Those findings are basically that the U-Boat war never came close to threatening supply to England. The reasons for this are that even at the height of operation Drum Beat the movement of oil and other commodities was never even slowed. America was able to use its rail system to substitute for coastal shipping and easily offset any loses. American and British losses were never such that shipping could not be replaced. The book might come across as slightly dry to some and certainly does not have the feel of a battle narrative. Despite that it is an outstanding history of an important campaign.

An excellent history of the WWII Battle of the Atlantic.

Gives an excellent view of the Battle of the Atlantic from the perspective of the Germans. Having read Silent Victory, I was amazed how much the Germans' submarine war paralleled the submarine war fought by the United States Navy in the Pacific against the Japanese in certain particulars, namely torpedo problems. It also outlined many, if not all, of the mistakes made by Hitler and Doenitz during the Battle of the Atlantic as well as those of the Allies.

AN AMERICAN VIEW OF U-BOAT OPERATIONS

This is a very comprehensive work! The author is not only meticulous in describing practically each u-boat sailing during this period, but he tends to keep the reader's interest in what could be a dull assignment, by explaining pertinent background information and providing in-depth detail on various crew members, making many of them "come to life" in the words on the page. At the same time, he keeps the reader informed on what is going on in other parts of the war that could affect u-boat and ASW (anti-submarine warfare) operations and practices, such as code breaking, Hitler's rash decision-making, Operation Torch, dropping off of secret agents, sabateurs, and/or commandos into enemy territory, development of radar and sonar and HF direction finding, u-boat activity on the U.S. coast, military officials involved, etc. This book is important historically since it not only provides an extremely detailed account of operations, but it reviews it from an American standpoint based on the author's incredible current research and his reading of British historians, and then commenting on divergences of viewpoint or, in some cases, the lack of British commentary on certain embarrassing happenings. - As some reviewers have noted, Blair tends to "stick with the facts" instead of sensationalising, and in the process gains the reader's trust. Excellent u-boat history, engrossing reading.